TALE OF TWO CITIES

STOKE CITY FC 1 MANCHESTER CITY 1


Yet another good game of football,with The Potters every bit a match for their expensively assembled visitors.Man City were outplayed by Stoke for a large part of the first half,in which frankly a few of their players gave the impression that they wished they were somewhere else doing something else!Certainly Stoke were in their faces and they did not fancy it.Our pressure was not just physical,but involved some tidy footballing moves,featuring particularly the attacking duo,Ricardo Fuller and Kenwyne Jones,aided and abetted by the superb Pennant and Etherington.


Stoke should have been a goal or two up by halftime,Ricardo Fuller missing the best chance as a fine backheel by Jones set him free one on one with keeper Joe Hart.Unfortunately the Jamaican screwed the ball ouside the righthand post.


Manchester started the second half more strongly,the Potters having to hang on doggedly at times.The game seemed to be drifting to a goalless conclusion,when ten minutes from the end Micah Richards sold Collins an outrageous dummy on the edge of the box,took a step forward,before driving the ball powerfully past Begovic into the net.


The visitors then set about retaining the ball,and to be honest successfully for the most part.An undeserved defeat looked the most likely result as we moved into added on time.Then a touch of Turkish magic  unlocked the door.A long Begovic punt upfield was headed down  by Kenwyne Jones to his new central partner Tuncay standing on the edge of the penalty box.The Turk's clever diagonal backheel  to the left found Etherington.Hart got a hand to Ethers cross-shot,but couldn't stop it entering the net.A brilliantly worked goal and richly deserved equaliser.


20 points from 15 games ,8th in the table.Not bad for the end of November.Plus,if you knew neither team,on yesterday's evidence you would have to say that the Mighty Potters expenditure on players looked to be better value for money than their rich list visitors.